Open AccessWhy an Upright Son Does Not Disclose His Father Stealing a Sheep: A Neglected Aspect of the Confucian Conception of Filial Piety
Author(s) -
Huang Yong
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
asian studies/asian studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.23
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 2350-4226
pISSN - 2232-5131
DOI - 10.4312/as.2017.5.1.15-45
Subject(s) - wrongdoing , filial piety , focus (optics) , piety , philosophy , sociology , psychology , law , epistemology , political science , gender studies , physics , optics
In the Analects, Confucius recommends to not disclose one’s father stealing a sheep, claiming that zhi 直lies within it. This passage has become the focus of a heated and prolonged debate among Chinese scholars in the last decade. A proper understanding of zhi, which is central to understanding this whole passage, is to straighten the crooked, or uprighten the non-upright. So what Confucius means is that the upright son ought to make his non-upright father upright; the best way to do so is to remonstrate his father against his wrongdoing, and the best environment for the successful remonstration can be provided by non-disclosure of his father’s wrongdoing